Journal article
Genome sequencing and analysis of the Tasmanian devil and its transmissible cancer
EP Murchison, OB Schulz-Trieglaff, Z Ning, LB Alexandrov, MJ Bauer, B Fu, M Hims, Z Ding, S Ivakhno, C Stewart, BL Ng, W Wong, B Aken, S White, A Alsop, J Becq, GR Bignell, RK Cheetham, W Cheng, TR Connor Show all
Cell | Published : 2012
Open access
Abstract
The Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), the largest marsupial carnivore, is endangered due to a transmissible facial cancer spread by direct transfer of living cancer cells through biting. Here we describe the sequencing, assembly, and annotation of the Tasmanian devil genome and whole-genome sequences for two geographically distant subclones of the cancer. Genomic analysis suggests that the cancer first arose from a female Tasmanian devil and that the clone has subsequently genetically diverged during its spread across Tasmania. The devil cancer genome contains more than 17,000 somatic base substitution mutations and bears the imprint of a distinct mutational process. Genotyping of soma..
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Awarded by Wellcome Trust
Funding Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Sarah Peck, Colette Harmsen, Rodrigo Hamede, Kate Swift, Bobby Hua, Robyn Taylor, Stephen Pyecroft, and the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program for assistance with sample collection. We thank Erin Pleasance, Thierry Voet, Chris Greenman, David Obendorf, Janine Deakin, Stephen Rice, Sue Bumpstead, and Emma Werner for assistance and discussions. Thanks to Hannah Bender for permission to use DFTD image, to Willem Rens and Malcolm Ferguson-Smith (University of Cambridge) for providing the Tasmanian devil and opossum fibroblast cell lines, and to Matthew Breen (North Carolina State University) for providing images of opossum metaphases. E.P.M. was supported by an NHMRC Overseas Biomedical Fellowship, an EMBO Fellowship, and a Research Fellowship from King's College, Cambridge. This work was supported in part by a Wellcome Trust grant (077012/Z/05/Z), a Dr Eric Guiler Tasmanian Devil Research Grant, and a L'Oreal UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship, UK and Ireland (E.P.M.). All authors at Illumina (see the affiliations) are employees of Illumina Inc., a public company that develops and markets systems for genetic analysis. All authors at Illumina receive stocks as part of their compensation.